The lobby was packed. Students are all over the place. Everyone was either rummaging through their locker or shuttering it down and running toward their class.
Standing by the entrance, the new girl in the school, strictly known to house the rich kids of the city, felt totally out of place.
She looked down at herself in her pleated skirt, a simple cotton shirt, in a high-tie pony, not at all looking the part of being a student in this high-profile school.
In the middle of the lobby, she could see girls, in their high heels, Gucci skirts, hair made it out as if styled by a hairdresser in the very morning, modeling their way in and out as if the goddamn narrow corridor was a runaway show.
She looked down at the small note, which included the numbers of her locker, which she had been trying hard to locate for a while by then.
Breaking through the crowd, she was glad that they were not really paying any attention to her being the new girl. She hated to be the center of attention.
When she thought, she finally found the locker that belonged to her, she tried to unlock it with the passcode given to her.
"Bro look at her..."
"Who is that?"
She was so duped in trying to unlock that locker as it kept getting stuck. She did not understand why.
The number of the locker was right. It was stuck up in the front. It read '16' and she was clueless as if the management held her the wrong passcode or not.
Instead of following the codes as they were, she rearranged the digit in her mind and rotated according to it.
"She thinking she can open it huh?"
She did not really hear them at first but could made out later that a few guys behind her were actually talking about her. She felt conscious.
Were they judging her out for not being able to open her own locker?
It made her ears red and give another attempt to rearrange the digits and open the locker.
And as she heard their mocking laughter, she did not realize the lock clicked open.
She felt relieved but before she could open it fully, someone thrashed it closed right away, making her jerk backward.
"Whoa! Whoa! "
"What the....!"
She was almost about to curse out but swallowed it down her throat when she saw the guy standing before her.
She did not know if he was some model or a really good-looking guy for his age...maybe both?
It was like one of those moments when all of a sudden you see a thing, unnoticed, unexpected before but then it catches your eyes so badly, that you could not look away...right away.
"She was about to curse! Goddamn!"
They all laughed. The group behind, her made her break out of her reverie.
"Could...could you move aside?"
Somehow, despite of all that attention that she was in, and his playful scrutinizing gazes all over her, she found the courage to speak up.
It was her first day and she could not manage to appear as if she was a scaredy-cat, anti-social, most likely in a school like this.
"And why will I move aside?"
He counter-questioned her. She was taken aback. He chuckled at her.
"...bec...because it is my locker!"
She tried to make a point, hopefully, thinking that he would move aside.
The last school she was in, of course it had guys like him, just not this exotic...she applied for breaks in her mind. She was acting so not herself.
Just that if you scare away from guys like him, they usually make you their target to mess around the next time and she did not want that at all when she had no friends here.
"Her locker? She says her locker!"
The guys at the back laughed out loud, saying those words out. The guy also looked back at them, who were his friends, as she supposed.
She took that moment to recheck the locker number and it was right. She thought to wear up her confidence and face them.
She could tell that they were recklessly trying to mess with her, knowing that it was her locker.
She showed him the piece of sheet, holding it up to his face. She had all his attention.
"It reads 16."
He did not say anything and just did something that she was not expecting it at all.
He simply rotated the digit six stuck on the locker and turned it into a nine. And the moment he did it, the rest behind broke into a fit of laughter.
She turned all pale. Her cheeks and the entirety of her face resemble a ripe tomato, on the verge of an explosion at any moment.
She had the wrong locker and she was beyond embarrassed to have ended up opening it.
"Move aside, you morons! Give the newbie a break!"
Came in a literal angel to her rescue as she would be calling her in the coming times.
"I'm Viviana Richardson, your assigned school tourer."
The blonde girl, dressed in a very decent summer frock, of course screaming richness with it, extended her hands for a shake and Janet accepted it.
The boys at the back started mimicking her name and Vivian totally ignored them.
"Thank you! I'm Janet..."
She chose to not reveal her full name, still feeling his presence right beside her, leaning down on the locker.
"Come I will take you to your locker!"
Viviana offered and Janet nodded. As she tried to move past him, he intentionally got in between, them as their shoulders collided with each other.
She turned to look back at him. He was smirking back at her, standing in his tall figure.
"Look out next time, little girl!"
His words screamed of tourble and it created havoc in her system as she walked forward still not being able to part her eyes off of him.
"Never give these morons, the attention!"
Vivian let out as they stood before the locker.
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Back in the car, after shopping, the exact same words, coming face to face with him after such a long time.
She was breathing high, holding onto the steering wheel. Maybe Vivian was right that she should not have given them the attention...and here she was five years later paying the price for it...
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The story will begin with a soft and static note before all the drama unfolds. It will transition between the past and the present.
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